8 Comments:

I liked the list, but I feel I must object to #3. While liberalism does have a problem with increasing anti-Semitism from the far left (especially in Europe), that's a far cry from liberalism being synonymous with anti-Semitism. The fact that American liberalism can't afford to purge the anti-Semites among them (Al Sharpton, Cynthia McKinney,etc.) does suggest that the anti-Semitic faction on the far left is a significant enough minority to be troubled about.

Kate, the list was somewhat tongue-in-cheek and I would agree that #3 goes too far. However, I would disagree that anti-Semitism is only a problem of the "far left". With the word "Neocon" being bandied about almost on a daily basis from the editorial pages of the Washington Post, NY Times, etc. and so forth, I think it's safe to say that it has infected far more than extreme margins of the left.

Yeah, but while "neo-con" is sometimes a code word for Jewish (which is sometimes made explicit -- for instance, the Adbusters list of "prominent neo-cons" that put asterisks next to the names of those who were Jewish), it is also a label which designates a real, if sometimes vaguely defined, political and intellectual movement. So I don't think it's automatically illegitimate or anti-Semitic to speak of neo-conservatism, though it sometimes is (as in the Adbusters example). The term also gets used -- in the fine tradition of journalistic intellectual laziness -- as a catch-all, to define anyone who supported the Iraq War, or anyone who writes articles for Commentary, etc. Anyway, as I said, I do think anti-Semitism has infected more than the extreme fringes (especially in Europe) and I do think it's a significant enough minority to be sincerely troubled about.

I know the list was tongue-in-cheek, and I don't mean to seem humorless (I'm already the least funny person on the blog!)but I just wanted to make it clear that I don't think all, or even most, liberals are anti-Semites (and neither, I think, do you), though they are wrong in all sorts of ways, including their toleration of the significant faction of anti-Semites in their midst.

I'm afraid I have to disagree again, Kate. Even you admit that the term is "vague" in its application. And that's just the problem. It's this synthetic, intentional vagueness of the term that allows the Maureen Dowd's of the world, with their steely eyes, to use the term in the gusto of their prejudices without being held to account for them. Anyone with the least bit of political sophistication knows that "neocon" is a polite epithet for "jew", period. To allow for any wiggle room to the contrary simply enables those who use the term to continue with their political license of gleeful bigotry.